From which aircraft were the release trials of 'Gaurav' conducted by DRDO in…

Concept. A glide bomb is an unpowered precision-guided munition. Having no propulsion of its own, its entire flight is a controlled glide: the launching aircraft’s release altitude and speed set the store’s initial energy, its aerodynamic efficiency and guided trajectory decide how much of that energy becomes horizontal range, and an inertial plus satellite navigation package steers it onto the target. Two consequences follow in the abstract. First, stand-off range is a function of the release conditions and the airframe’s aerodynamics, not of any thrust the weapon carries. Second, fielding such a weapon is an integration problem rather than a size problem: a particular bomb is cleared on a particular aircraft type through carriage, separation and avionics qualification, so the platform a given munition is trialled from is a matter of documented programme record and cannot be inferred from the weapon’s mass alone.

Application. ‘Gaurav’ is the Long-Range Glide Bomb (LRGB) developed indigenously by the DRDO — a 1,000 kg-class glide bomb designed and developed by Research Centre Imarat (RCI) and the Armament Research and Development Establishment (ARDE), with the Integrated Test Range (ITR), Chandipur. Per the Ministry of Defence and DRDO releases on these trials, the release trials were conducted from 8 to 10 April 2025 and Gaurav was released from a Su-30 MKI, striking a land target on an island and demonstrating a range of close to 100 km with pinpoint accuracy. The Su-30 MKI — a twin-engine canard-delta multirole fighter licence-built by HAL — is the type on which the LRGB has been integrated and cleared for release. Adani Defence Systems & Technologies and Bharat Forge were the development-cum-production partners, along with several MSMEs.

Contrast. The other aircraft named are all Indian Air Force fighters, but none of them appears as the release platform in the programme record for this weapon:

• Tejas — India’s indigenous single-engine light combat aircraft, designed by the Aeronautical Development Agency; it is not the aircraft named in the DRDO record of these trials.

• MiG-29 — a twin-engine air-superiority fighter of Soviet origin, flown by the IAF in its upgraded MiG-29 UPG form; it was not the release platform for the LRGB trials.

• Mirage 2000 — a single-engine delta-wing multirole fighter that does carry laser- and satellite-guided bombs, but was not the aircraft from which Gaurav was released.

Cross-check. Gaurav’s maiden release test in August 2024 was also flown from a Su-30 MKI, so the April 2025 trials continued an already-established integration on the same platform rather than introducing a new one — an independent confirmation of the answer.

Result. The April 2025 release trials of the Long-Range Glide Bomb ‘Gaurav’ were conducted from the Su-30 MKI.